Thank you for stopping by the Weather Watch 12 blog! A long duration lake driven snow event starts today and continues through the first half of the weekend. In today's blog we discuss the snow timeline, how much snow to expect and why inland areas will be impacted from this round of lake effect snow.

Let's start with the snow timeline. As surface winds transition to the northeast lake effect snow will develop by midday or afternoon. Periods of snow will then continue into Saturday evening. Forecast snowfall is expected to be highest in and near lakeshore counties.

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A quick reminder that lake effect snow develops when cold air flows over the warmer lake waters. Right now Lake Michigan temperatures are still relatively 'warm'. As the air above the lake cools and condenses it forms clouds and lake effect snow. The persistent northeast-east winds now through Saturday mean the snow will get pushed inland to locations that may not normally see lake effect snow.

While inland locations will see some snow, the steadiest and heaviest snows are still expected to reside in or very close to the lakeshore counties. Periods of snow will occur from Friday afternoon into Saturday evening.

Waking up Saturday morning Futurecast below is indicating a moderate to heavy rate of snow from Sheboygan county south into Racine county. Snowfall rates at times could be 1" or higher per hour Friday night into Saturday afternoon.

Lake effect snow totals can be tricky to pin down since embedded bands of heavy snow can drive totals up quickly. While that is possible, it appears that most of the lakeshore counties and areas nearby will fall in the 4"-7" range. Snow totals will drop off quickly to the west of Waukesha and Washington counties.

Again, depending how long the heavy bands hang over any one location will determine if isolated areas see totals sneak over 7". Please keep us updated during the next 36 hours by tweeting us photos and posting weather updates to the Wisconsin Weather Updates Facebook page.

For the latest weather information watch WISN 12 News, and for updates throughout the day follow me on Twitter @jnelsonweather